Similarities And Differences Between Edgar Allan Poe And Sylvia Plath

Edgar Allen Poe, although considered an outstanding author and poet, struggled with pain and death which he had endured throughout his lifetime. These experiences are reflected in his writings. For instance, “The Raven” and “The Tell-Tale Heart” which are both independent stories of Poe with distinct storylines shared a few commonalities. This includes the presence of death, the literary use of repetition and a late-night setting. In “The Raven”, the narrator has lost his wife and is desperate to reunite with her. When the raven first appears on top of his door, he hopes that it has come to bring him back his Lenore or to take him to her. The death of his loved one, Lenore, within the short poem leaves the narrator in a desperate and melancholy state. It reaches the point where he begins to grow frustrated when the bird doesn’t answer his questions about his deceased lover. In the text, it says “From my books surcease of sorrow—sorrow for the lost Lenore.” This quote shows the aftermath and effects of death especially when it leaves you without a loved one. Similarly, in “The Tell-Tale Heart”, a life is also taken away. In the short story, the narrator seeks to commit murder to free himself of the old man’s “evil vulture eye.” He describes it as, “the eye of a vulture- a pale blue eye, with a film over it” and while it is not specific whether the man was simply blind or had a fake eye, the narrator was paranoid. His paranoia drove him mad although he claimed not to be and

In “Annabel Lee”, Edgar Allan Poe, like in many of his stories, describes the death of a beautiful woman. He describes for the reader that the love of him and Annabel Lee was so strong, that the angels in Heaven envied them and this was the cause of her death. It is disputed that the woman named Annabel Lee in this poem, is in real life, Edgar Allen Poe’s wife, Virginia. “Annabel Lee” is a perfect example of how Edgar Allen Poe used romance to illustrate the essence of death. He describes how the love that he had for her was so strong and it ended up causing envy in the angels and they in return took her away from him. The poem illustrates the misery that can be

In Edgar Allan Poe's lifetime and today, critics think that there are striking similarities between what Poe lived and what he wrote. His melancholy, often-depressing stories are thought to reflect his feelings. There is truth to this, although his entire life was not miserable. In fact, in some of his poems, the good characters are modeled after him. Edgar Allan Poe's writing was affected by many things in his life, including his turbulent childhood, his poverty, and his many tragic losses.

Poetic Qualities as Signs of Loss in Edgar Allan Poe’s “Annabel Lee”Edgar Allan Poe's classic poem, "Annabel Lee," is a very deep and emotional poem,clearly trying to convey a lot of universal emotion to his reader. During his lifetime, Poe had lost his young wife, his mother, and his stepmother, so in other words, many of the women that Poe had so loved in his life had died, and this was something that had deeply troubled Poe, leading him to an eventual state of depression. In the poem "Annabel Lee," many of these feelings of love and loss that Poe felt towards his wife and other women is all transmitted to the reader.Through the use of various forms of poetic qualities, tone, and imagery, Poe speaks about a universal theme of love and loss, inspired by his own experiences with the women he loved.Throughout the poem Annabel Lee, Poe seems to be utilizing a very dark, menacing,even vengeful sort of tone, and he does this through various means. One of the way he does this is by his word choice. He uses harsh words and phrases like "killing (line 26)," "shut her up,”(line 19) and "dissever my soul" (line 32) to accomplish this. Even though Poe is speaking about his love, he is nevertheless speaking in a very menacing sort of way. The hurt that he feels from her loss has impacted him deeply, he is all consumed by the darkness of her untimely death, as the reader also learns that she was young when she was taken away. This loss has driven the speaker to the point of anger and

As 1842 opened, Poe lived with happiness and luxury, but tragedy soon struck. Virginia, Poe’s wife, would suffer from tuberculosis (Tilton 64). This disease had ravaged the Poe and Allan family’s all of Edgar’s life. Edgar would soon be forced to leave his new editorial position at Graham Magazine (Tilton 69). Also at this time, Virginia’s illness was always on his mind, and many of his new stories began to reflect his distress. “The Pit and the

In 1963 on a cold winter day of February 11th, Sylvia Plath ended her life. She had plugged up her kitchen, sealing up the cracks in doors and windows before she was found with her head inside of her gas oven inhaling the dangerous fumes. She was only thirty years old, a young woman with two small children and an estranged ex-husband. A tragic detail of her life is that this is the second time she had tried to commit suicide. Plagued with mental illness her whole life, which is evident within her poetry. She would write gripping, honest portrayals of mental illnesses. Especially within Ariel, the last poetry book she wrote, right before she took her life. Although it’s hard to find a proper diagnosis for Sylvia Plath, it is almost definite that she at least had clinical depression with her numerous suicide attempts and stays in mental hospitals undergoing electroshock therapy. Sylvia Plath is now famously known for her writing and the more tragic parts of her life. Such as the separation from her husband, Ted Hughes, mental illness, etc… Plath may not have intended for her life and art to become inspiration to many people but that has become the end result. Sylvia Plath writing shows symptoms of her suicidal thoughts. To study specific moments in Sylvia Plath’s life, it can be connected to certain writing’s of her’s, such as “Daddy”, The Bell Jar, and “Lady Lazarus”.

“Mr. Poe could not possibly send forth a book without some marks of his genius, and mixed up with the dross we find much sterling ore.” — (From a review of Poe’s Tales, September 6, 1845.) In 1845, Poe, 27, and Virginia, 13, married, and were happy for a time. In 1842, Virginia ruptured a blood vessel; the first sign of the ill health that plagued her short life. Poe turned to alcohol to cope with her illness and the stress of his dying wife. Two years later, Virginia died of tuberculosis, and Poe’s own death would follow shortly two years after that.

Young, beautiful, and doomed; In several, if not all, works of Edgar Allan Poe, there is a not so subtle theme that is found. One of the death and beauty. How is the death of a young woman romanticized within selected works of Edgar Allan Poe? In such works as “Lenore”, “Ulalume”, popular “Annabel Lee”, “The Raven”, and short story “The Oval Painter” ,the “death of a beautiful woman” theme is prevalent and strongly noted within context, word choice, and imagery. In the eyes of Edgar Allan poe, death, especially that of a woman, to be lamented and mourned by a “bereaved lover”, is the most valued tool to have and utilize when writing. In his own life, Poe was able to relate to the subject matter, as many of his heroins are believed to be based upon his wife Virginia, who had died at a young age. Unraveling the methods to how Poe romanticized death of young women in his literature might give insight to not only Poe’s life, but humanity in general..

Edgar Allan Poe is considered to be one of the greatest American writers of all time. His writing is dark and sinister. He wrote of death, murder, psychosis, and obsession. One could only imagine what would bring a person to write such morbid stories. Perhaps, it may be attributed to Poe’s childhood, a past that was sad and far from average. Both of his parents died when he was only three years of age (Shelley). The death of his parents caused a separation from his siblings and he moved to live with his relatives (Shelley). In later years, Poe endured poverty and the loss of his wife-to-be to another man (Clark). Possibly, without those troubling experiences, Poe couldn’t have imagined such eerie and enthralling tales. Some of his most

Oftentimes when the ones we love feel pain, so do we. This was undoubtedly the case for Poe and his beloved wife, Virginia. In 1842, the year before Poe authored The Tell-Tale Heart, his wife had a near death experience due to a ruptured blood vessel, which in turn reshaped both of their lives more than they would ever knew. Apparently, this is the credited moment in time when “Poe’s personal life took on a darker tone” (Bain and Flora 368). Virginia’s eventual downfall was tuberculosis, but this downfall was a very long and strenuous process that the couple shared and went through side by side. Watching his true love suffer antagonized Poe, and the thought of being without her was haunting. Distance was always the last option because when the two separated the issues they

As humans we are shown true love throughout our lifetime whether it be through relatives or interpersonal relationships as well as experience true pain when being separated by a loved one to the hands of death itself. But what if the person you loved the most was taken from you by fatal incidents, leaving you alone in the world forever? American poet Edgar Allan Poe and European poet W.H. Auden both explore the central concept of agony brought upon when being separated by a ones true love at the face of death. While Poe's ¨Annabel Lee¨ and Auden's ¨Funeral Blues¨ both express grief and despair as well as true love's devotion, Poe takes a more cynical tone to his poem and Auden shows a more lamentful and empty feeling to his poem. While individually each poem inhabits a different tone, the use of imagery to nature and diction to further express their poem's theme. also .

Sadness, guilt, and fear are some of the most negative emotions that humanity can experience, however they are also the strongest. Edgar Allan Poe, a nineteenth century author and poet, is known primarily for his use of these emotions, as well as the results that may come from these emotions, such as substance abuse, depression, and death. However, the ability to write such elegant, sophisticated works that delve into the very dark recesses of the human mind reflects greatly upon the author himself. Repetitive themes found both in Poe’s stories and in his life deliver insight on the inspiration for this author’s stories. Poe uses themes of death, illness, and depression in order to reflect his own experiences within his writing.

An exceptional poem can move the reader to a new consciousness. It becomes more than words pieced together to make a rhyme, and evokes true emotion that is palpable. One of the most influential authors that contributed to this experience was Edgar Allan Poe. His work is almost immediately recognizable due to his common motif that is both melancholy and mysterious. Much of his writing concerns love and loss, such as in his poem “Annabel Lee.” The essence of this work is endless love and the death of a beautiful young girl. It is thought by many that most of his literature mirrors his actual life, which was riddled with heartbreak and sorrow. It is evident from the mood and setting of his writing that he dealt with a lot of

Loss and grief are two feelings that many people have experienced or that authors or musicians have explored to share with an audience. An example of one writer who achieves this is one of America’s most well-known authors and poets, Edgar Allan Poe. Poe explores and informs readers about darker topics like grief and death while captivating and immersing the audience by establishing a detailed tone throughout his poems. Published in 1845, Poe’s most famous poem, “The Raven,” delves into the dark, sullen side of humanity by telling the story of a man whose wife had passed away. Throughout the poem, the narrator hears tapping and knocking, which he suspects is his wife, on his door and window; however, a raven enters the room as a representation of the wisdom it will bring the narrator about life after death. Meanwhile, “Annabel Lee,” another one of Poe’s most famous poems reveals the more hopeful and optimistic perspective of losing a loved one. While Edgar Allan Poe uses different tones and plotlines in “The Raven” and “Annabel Lee,” both stories portray how grief and the obscurity of the afterlife can affect people.

In his writing, the reader can taste the depression, emptiness, and sorrow Poe has felt in his lifetime. In Poe’s story “Alone” he believes that his childhood was “the mystery which” has bound him to the good and the bad (line 12). In Poe’s early age his father left and his mother died from tuberculosis. Soon after Poe’s mother’s sorrowful death, he was adopted by John and Frances Valentine Allan which meant he had to be separated from his brother, William Henry Leonard Poe, and his sister, Rosalie Mackenzie Poe at a young age (Biography.com Editors). Before Elizabeth Poe’s death, Poe and his mother had a genuine relationship. Elizabeth Poe was an actress and Poe went to his mother’s plays where she would play Juliet in “Romeo and Juliet.” During this play, Poe would witness his mother croak and then revive, which gave Poe an odd aspect of life and death. Between Poe’s birth father leaving and his foster father’s neglect, Poe never had a strong male figure to look up to. Poe has experienced heaps of death of his loved ones throughout his life, losing both his, birth mother and his foster mother to the Grim Reaper by illness. The vicissitude in Poe’s life has influenced Poe to write his deep and meaningful poem,